{"id":37332,"date":"2017-07-13T08:50:28","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T11:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=37332"},"modified":"2017-07-19T10:36:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T13:36:36","slug":"with-traditional-celebration-horto-takes-a-moment-to-celebrate-and-strengthen-its-resistance-to-eviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=37332","title":{"rendered":"With Traditional Celebration, Horto Takes a Moment to Celebrate and Strengthen its Resistance to Eviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

From Friday July 7 to Sunday July 9, the Horto Residents’ Commission<\/a> organized the Arrai\u00e1\u00a0<\/span>do Horto<\/a>. With the motto \u201cFrom Arrai\u00e1 to Arrai\u00e1, Horto<\/a> resists,\u201d the tone of the arrai\u00e1<\/em>\u00a0Brazilian annual cultural event honoring the nation’s rural roots<\/a> was set. Horto took advantage of its traditional celebration to mark one more year of resistance in a two-hundred year history<\/a> which has intensified in the past years due to eviction threats from the federal government. Many people from the community and outside joined together in honoring the community’s struggle in a celebratory fashion.<\/p>\n

As Emerson da Souza<\/a>, current president of the Horto Residents Association<\/a>\u00a0explained, the idea behind this particular edition was to reunite community residents and revive resistance and community spirit. According to Emerson, the authorities’ strategy so far has been to “eliminate places where the community meets and organizes itself politically.” He explained that “in the 1950s, this was a semi-rural zone.” Horto has been organizing arrai\u00e1s<\/em> for years, but with the current tense threat of eviction<\/a>, this edition is even more important. Apart from typical food and drinks, the Horto Residents Commission was also selling “Horto fica!” (Horto Stays!) t-shirts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The historic community of Horto is situated in the South Zone<\/a> of Rio, between the Botanical Gardens<\/a> and the Tijuca National Park<\/a>. It has existed for over 200 years<\/a> and has been under threat of eviction from the Botanical Gardens since the 1960s<\/a>. According to Emerson, there are around 500 families still under threat of eviction in the community and he ensured evictions have no legal basis and are purely linked to “real estate speculation.” People in Brazil are now living under a “capital dictatorship,” he said.<\/p>\n

Moacyr de Oliveira Paiva Jr<\/a>, who presented himself as the Founding President of the Horto Residents Commission, also denounces evictions as unconstitutional, explaining the majority of Horto residents’ ancestors came to work in the Botanical Gardens, the same Gardens now trying to evict them. Indeed, the Gardens’ legal actions against Horto residents were first submitted in 1985 while Brazil was still a\u00a0military dictatorship<\/a>\u00a0and before the\u00a0Brazilian\u00a0Constitution<\/a>\u00a0was established.\u00a0He said his wife Beatriz is\u00a0the fourth\u00a0generation in their family living in Horto and their daughter Laura thus of the fifth generation. In the same vein, Emerson pointed up the hill to a huge double-standard<\/a>: “there are houses in the forest above the Gardens, why can they stay and not us?”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Horto Residents Commission and Association have been working together to fight eviction for years and have used all legal resources available to them. Many residents received notice of eviction without any offers of alternative housing or compensation. The future of the community remains highly uncertain.\u00a0In 2013,\u00a0Horto was included\u00a0on the\u00a0Brazilian Conflict Map of Health and Environmental Injustice<\/a>\u00a0put together by the\u00a0National Public Health School<\/a> (ENSP).\u00a0That\u00a0same year, the\u00a0Horto Museum<\/a>\u00a0was recognized as a \u201cpoint of memory\u201d among Brazilian museums.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The arrai\u00e1<\/em> was a moment of being together, sharing ideas, food, drinks and taking back Horto’s public spaces, a brief moment of celebration and joy along its battle. But on Monday July 10, the Commission had already planned a meeting to think about resistance to eviction and plan new actions. The arrai\u00e1<\/em> was also another occasion to engage supportive outsiders in the cause. Long-time partners, the\u00a0National Movement for the Fight for Housing (M<\/a>NLM)<\/a> was present and held a food stand. As\u00a0Moacyr<\/a> said, “if it happens in (such a historic community as) Horto, it can happen anywhere.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas From Friday July 7 to Sunday July 9, the Horto Residents’ Commission organized the Arrai\u00e1\u00a0do Horto. With the motto \u201cFrom Arrai\u00e1 to Arrai\u00e1, Horto resists,\u201d the tone of the arrai\u00e1\u00a0Brazilian annual […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":37357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1267,1854,1288,1333,329,1329],"tags":[756,258,504,2106,11,65,188,884,26,894,919,157,10,2400,270,156,489],"writer":[2460],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-gentrificationwatch","9":"category-housingwatch","10":"category-highlight","11":"category-event-reports","12":"category-solutions","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-community-organizing","15":"tag-community-solution","16":"tag-culture","17":"tag-festa-junina","18":"tag-forced-evictions","19":"tag-gentrification","20":"tag-history","21":"tag-horto","22":"tag-housing-rights","23":"tag-jardim-botanico","24":"tag-mnlm","25":"tag-minha-casa-minha-vida","26":"tag-real-estate-speculation","27":"tag-resilience","28":"tag-resistance","29":"tag-south-zone","30":"tag-tijuca-forest","31":"writer-suzanne-chatelier"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37332"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=37332"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=37332"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=37332"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=37332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}